JP6765626B2 - Frozen food thawing device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is a thawing device for frozen foods contained in a vertically elongated rectangular pack such as a frozen liquid egg pack. The frozen food pack is quickly thawed in a safe refrigerated environment in which the growth of bacteria is suppressed, and a large amount of the frozen food pack is thawed. It relates to a frozen food thawing device capable of uniformly thawing a frozen food pack at the same time.

Traditionally, when thawing packed frozen foods such as frozen egg packs, frozen egg makers have recommended thawing under running water or in the refrigerator, but in practice frozen foods are thawed. Room moisture natural thawing may be performed by leaving it indoors to thaw.

The growth of bacteria in packed frozen foods such as frozen liquid eggs increases the growth speed in a storage environment exceeding 5 ° C and increases the risk of food poisoning, so the problem is that natural thawing at room temperature in the hot summer increases the risk. was there.

On the other hand, running water thawing, in which several frozen egg packs are placed in a bowl and thawed by running tap water, requires appropriate control of the temperature and thawing time of tap water, and the thawing quality tends to be uneven. There was a problem.

In particular, since the temperature of tap water in summer greatly exceeds 5 ° C, if the state of being warmed with running water continues after thawing, the risk of food poisoning increases, so it is troublesome to properly manage the temperature and thawing time of tap water. There was a problem that it was.

In addition, the standard thawing time for frozen egg packs is 6 hours when thawing with running water at 20 ° C, but it is difficult to properly manage the thawing time in a busy kitchen, and if the thawing time is too long, food poisoning will occur. There was the problem of risk.

Next, in the refrigerator thawing in a safe environment within 5 ° C, when thawing one frozen liquid egg (1 liter: -20 ° C) in a paper carton in a commercial refrigerator, low temperature cold air at 5 ° C Since the thawing is performed by, the thawing time becomes 25 hours or more, and there is a problem that the thawing time is significantly longer than that of running water thawing.

In addition, as a problem when thawing multiple frozen liquid egg packs in the refrigerator, the cold air in the refrigerator is naturally convected, and the time required for thawing is significantly longer than in the case of one egg carton. There is a problem that the time required for thawing varies depending on the place of placement in the refrigerator, which makes uniform thawing difficult.

Therefore, conventionally, a thawing device for frozen foods has been considered in which heated / humidified air is introduced into the refrigerator to shorten the time required for thawing, and the heated / humidified air is introduced from the center of the ceiling of the low temperature chamber for thawing. Conventional example 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-779742) in which the air is introduced and convected to thaw, and conventional example 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-779742) in which heated / humidified air is introduced from the center of the bottom surface of the thawing cabinet and convected to thaw. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-12271) has been considered.

JP-A-5-77942 JP-A-63-1221

In the conventional examples 1 and 2, since the humidified air heated by the heater is convected in the thawing low temperature chamber or the thawing chamber to thaw, there is an advantage that the thawing time is shortened, but the center of the ceiling or the bottom surface Since warming and humidifying air is introduced from one place in the center, when multiple frozen food packs in a vertically long rectangular pack are thawed at the same time, convection is obstructed by the forested frozen food packs and thawed. There was a problem that the variation in the required time became large.
That is, although warming and humidifying air flows intensively around the frozen food pack placed in the central part and the time required for thawing is significantly shortened, the peripheral surface of the frozen food pack placed in the peripheral part is significantly shortened. However, since the flow of heated / humidified air is deteriorated and the time required for thawing is not shortened so much, there is a problem that the time required for thawing varies widely and uniform thawing cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional example, and in a frozen food thawing device in which a plurality of vertically long rectangular frozen food packs are placed and thawed, the time required for thawing can be shortened. It is an object of the present invention to provide a frozen food thawing device capable of achieving uniform thawing by reducing variation in the thawing time required when thawing a plurality of frozen food packs.

The present invention according to claim 1 is a thawing device in which a plurality of vertically elongated rectangular frozen food packs are placed in a refrigerating chamber set to a predetermined refrigerating temperature so that the food can be thawed at the same time. A cold air circulation means is provided to generate convection by blowing out heated / humidified thaw air from the bottom to the top of the frozen food pack, and a blowout duct having a large number of blowout holes on the upper surface is provided at the bottom of the refrigerator. This is a frozen food thawing device in which a substantially uniform updraft is brought into contact with the peripheral surfaces of a plurality of frozen food packs placed above the duct.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the frozen food thawing apparatus according to the first aspect, a positioning guide is provided so that a plurality of vertically elongated rectangular parallelepiped frozen food packs can be placed in a forest at appropriate intervals.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the frozen food thawing apparatus according to the first and second aspects, a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor are provided in the blowout duct portion, and the temperature and humidity of the thawing cold air are determined based on the outputs of both sensors. A thawing control circuit for controlling the heating means and the humidifying means so as to have a predetermined value is provided.

The invention of claim 4 is the thawing device for frozen foods according to claims 1 to 3, provided with a temperature abnormality alarm device that detects an abnormal temperature rise of cold air in a refrigerating room and issues an alarm.

The invention of claim 5 is a malfunction preventing means for preventing the alarm of the temperature abnormality alarm device due to the temperature rise due to the temporary opening of the door when the frozen food pack is taken in and out in the frozen food thawing device according to claim 4. Is provided.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in the frozen food thawing apparatus according to the first to fifth aspects, a suction duct having a large number of suction holes on the lower surface is provided on the ceiling of the refrigerator compartment.

According to the frozen food thawing apparatus according to the present invention, since thawing is performed in a refrigerating room set to a predetermined refrigerating temperature, thawing in a safe environment that suppresses the growth of bacteria is performed as compared with natural thawing at room temperature and thawing under running water. It is possible to shorten the time required for thawing compared to thawing in the refrigerator because a cold air circulation means is provided to generate convection by blowing out the thawed air that has been heated and humidified in the refrigerator room from the bottom to the top of the frozen food pack. It has the effect of being able to plan.

In addition, by providing a blowout duct having a large number of blowout holes on the upper surface at the bottom of the refrigerating chamber, the updraft is uniformly brought into contact with the peripheral surfaces of a plurality of frozen food packs placed above the blowout ducts. There is an effect that uniform thawing can be realized by reducing the variation in the thawing time required when thawing a plurality of frozen foods.

Partially broken front view of an embodiment of the present invention Same as above Partially broken top view Same as above, front view of the main part (a), top view of the main part (b) Same as above block circuit diagram Front view of the main part (a) and top view of the main part (b) of other embodiments. Partially broken front view of still another embodiment

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which a vertically long rectangular frozen food pack (having substantially the same shape as a milk carton) is placed in a refrigerating chamber 1 set to a predetermined refrigerating temperature (5 ° C.). This is a refrigerating / thawing device in which a plurality of paper packs) 2 are placed and thawed at the same time. A cold air circulation means 3 for generating convection is provided.
In the embodiment, by providing the blowout duct 5 having a large number of blowout holes 4 on the upper surface at the bottom of the refrigerating chamber 1, the circumference of a plurality of (4 × 5) frozen food packs 2 placed on the upper surface of the blowout duct 5 is provided. The updraft is evenly contacted with the surface.

FIG. 3 shows a positioning guide of another embodiment, and is for positioning in which a plurality of vertically elongated rectangular parallelepiped frozen food packs 2 are stretched in a grid pattern so that they can be placed in a forest at appropriate intervals. The wire guide 6 is provided on the upper surface of the blowout duct 5.

The cooling means for maintaining the temperature of the refrigerating room 1 at 5 ° C. is composed of a refrigerator 10a installed in the machine room 9 and a cooler 10b installed in the refrigerating room 1, and is on the cold air blowing side. A heater 11 and an ultrasonic humidifier 12 provided in the above form a heating / humidifying air chamber for thawing, and a blower fan 13 circulates in the refrigerator chamber 1. In the figure, 1a is a door for a refrigerating room, and 9a is a door for a machine room.

FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram of the cold air circulation means 3 according to the embodiment of the present invention, in which the temperature sensor 21 and the humidity sensor 22 are provided at the key points of the blowout duct 5, and the defrosting air is provided based on the outputs of both sensors 21 and 22. A thawing control circuit 23 that controls the heater 11 and the ultrasonic humidifier 12 so that the temperature and humidity of the thawing becomes a predetermined value is provided, and the operation panel 24 provides the temperature and humidity of the warming / humidifying air for thawing. In addition, the air volume of the fan 13 can be adjusted.

Further, the operation panel 24 is integrated with a temperature abnormality alarm device 25 that detects an abnormal temperature rise in the refrigerating chamber 1 and issues an alarm, and this temperature abnormality alarm device 25 is used when the frozen food pack is taken in and out. It has a malfunction preventing means for preventing the alarm of the temperature abnormality alarm device 25 due to the temperature rise due to the temporary opening of the door.

Regarding the operation of the thawing device according to the present invention, the warming / humidifying air for thawing adjusted to a predetermined humidity (90 to 95%) at a predetermined temperature (4.8 to 5.2 ° C.) is blown out duct. Through the blowout hole 4 on the upper surface of the 5th surface, a substantially uniform updraft is formed along the peripheral surface of the frozen food pack 2, efficient heat exchange is performed, the time required for thawing can be shortened, and the time required for thawing can be shortened. It is possible to reduce the variation.

When 20 frozen food packs (-20 ° C) are placed in the refrigerator, the temperature of the cold air for thawing is 5 ° C, the humidity is 90%, and the blown air volume is 5.2 m ³ / min. The time required for thawing was 20 hours, which was significantly shorter than the time required for thawing in the case of natural thawing at room temperature of 30 hours and the time required for thawing in the case of thawing in a commercial refrigerator of 65 hours.

On the other hand, when a comparative experiment was conducted with the same thawing device as in the conventional examples 1 and 2 in which the blowing duct 5 was removed and the thawing air was blown from the center of the bottom surface, the variation in the thawing time required when thawing with the conventional example device was found. It takes 15 hours (central part) to 30 hours (peripheral part), but in the case of the defrosting apparatus according to the present invention, there is almost no variation in the defrosting time required depending on the mounting position, and the defrosting time is about 20 hours. It was confirmed that the actual thawing time required to thaw all the frozen food packs could be significantly reduced (30 hours (MAX of the conventional example) → 20 hours).

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment, in which a net shelf 7 for placing the frozen food pack 2 is provided above the outlet duct, and a plurality of (4 × 5) frozen food packs 2 are put in and taken out at once. By providing a net cage 8 having a handle 8a that enables it and by providing a positioning wire guide 6 at the upper opening of the net cage 8, a plurality of frozen food packs 2 can be efficiently and smoothly taken in and out. .. Although the blowout hole (round hole with a diameter of 3 cm) 4 of the blowout duct is provided corresponding to the bottom surface of the frozen food pack 2, the blowout hole 4 may be provided corresponding to the gap between the adjacent frozen food packs 2. good.

FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway front view showing still another embodiment, in which a suction duct 27 having a large number of suction holes 26 on the lower surface is provided on the ceiling of the refrigerator compartment 1, and the lower surface plate is punched metal. It is said that the variation in the time required for thawing can be further reduced because convection in a substantially vertical direction can be realized between the outlet hole 4 on the upper surface of the outlet duct 5 and the opposite hole of the suction duct 27 with the suction hole 26. effective.

1 Refrigerator room 2 Frozen food pack 3 Cold air circulation means 4 Blow-out hole 5 Blow-out duct 6 Positioning wire guide 9 Machine room 11 Heater 12 Humidifier 13 Blower fan 25 Temperature abnormality alarm device 26 Suction hole 27 Suction duct

Claims (4)

In a frozen food thawing device that allows simultaneous thawing by placing multiple vertically long rectangular frozen food packs in a refrigerating room set to a predetermined refrigerating temperature, the cold air in the refrigerating room is heated and humidified. A plurality of blowout ducts placed above the blowout ducts are provided by providing cold air circulation means for generating convection by blowing out from the bottom to the top of the frozen food pack and providing a blowout duct having a large number of blowout holes on the upper surface at the bottom of the refrigerator compartment. A frozen food thawing device characterized in that a substantially uniform updraft is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the frozen food pack, and a positioning guide is provided so that a plurality of frozen food packs can be placed in a forest at appropriate intervals. .. A temperature sensor and a humidity sensor were provided in the outlet duct, and a thawing control circuit was provided to control the heating means and the humidifying means so that the temperature and humidity of the thawing cold air became predetermined values based on the outputs of both sensors. The thawing device for frozen foods according to claim 1 . Prevention refrigeration compartment to detect an abnormal rise in temperature of the cool air provided temperature abnormality alarm device for issuing an alarm Rutotomoni, the alarm temperature device for alarming due to the temperature rise due to a temporary door opening during loading and unloading of the frozen food packs The thawing device for frozen foods according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the malfunction preventing means is provided . The thawing device for frozen food according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a suction duct having a large number of suction holes on the lower surface is provided on the ceiling of the refrigerator compartment.

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